Mortlake is now chasing?"
Roy looked at the other as if he thought he had gone suddenly mad, as well
he might.
"I don't understand you," he gasped. "What is all this--a joke? It's a
very poor one if it is."
"I'll give you a chance to explain," said the officer grimly, tightening
his hold on Roy's collar, "as things stand at present, I believe you to be
as black a young traitor as ever wore shoe leather."
The world swam before Roy's eyes. He sensed, for the first time, an
inkling of the diabolical web that had been spun about him.
But it is time that we retraced our footsteps a little and return to
events which occurred after the lieutenant had been picked up by
appointment in Sandy Beach. In the automobile which called for him were
seated Mr. Harding, whom he already knew slightly from meeting him at the
aeroplane plant, and Mortlake himself.
"This is a very unfortunate business, hey?" croaked old Harding, as they
spun along the road to the place where Mortlake, who was driving, declared
Roy had made an appointment to meet the foreign spy.
"It is worse than that, sir. It is deplorable," the officer had said. And
he meant it, too. He had hardly been able to eat his dinner for thinking
over the extraordinary situation.
But the auto sped rapidly on. Now it had passed the last scattering houses
outside the village, and was racing along a lonely country road.
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